No More Absurd Airport Proposals for Oxfordshire

Oxford’s Green Party County Councillors are presenting a motion to the County Council to urge opposition to suggestions of a new airport in the County, on Tuesday 5th November.

County Councillor Sam Coates, University Parks, comments:

Oxford’s Green Party County Councillors are presenting a motion to the County Council to urge opposition to suggestions of a new airport in the County(1), on Tuesday 5th November. Our motions says:

This Council is alarmed by the second proposal now being considered by the Secretary of State for Transport for a fifth London airport, the size of the present Heathrow, to be constructed around Marcham and East Hanney. Oxford County Council is dismayed that a consultation and bids for greater airport capacity is being considered again even though only 3 years ago the Conservative party were arguing that there would be no need for greater capacity in the London area and therefore they would not back expansion at Heathrow. (Conservative Manifesto 2010 General Election). The County believe that such an airport close to the landing systems of Brize Norton and London Oxford Airport is unnecessary and would bring greater pollution and disturbance to the area.

Such a proposal would run counter to all the County Council’s planning policies to date, meaning dramatic changes to assumptions made for transport, housing, environmental control, and economic planning. All County services would be directly effected from education to adult care to wildlife protection. Oxford County Council urges the Secretary of State to resist demands for ever more airport expansion because of the carbon burning consequences such proposals generate and to turn down this particular proposal for a West Oxfordshire Airport as unsuitable to the needs of the County and the Country as a whole.

This Council authorises the Chief Executive to write to the relevant minister outlining the Councils views on this matter.

[Moved by Councillor David Williams, Seconded by Councillor Sam Coates]

Notes

There is a proliferation of airport proposals for the South East quadrant of the country at present, including an artificial island in the Thames Estuary; large expansions of Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Manston and Lydd Airports. Given the implications for public spending of each proposal in terms of surface transport infrastructure, worth about £9 billion as a subsidy to civil aviation each year in the UK already, it seems highly unlikely that any Government would commit itself to increasing such spending, exacerbating air pollution through additional aircraft and traffic congestion or enraging the communities likely to be hit by even more noise.

FURTHER INFORMATION: Councillor David Williams on 01865 765852 or 07531 328931.